Of Food and Forgotten Dates
by mikanlove
Summary: It's Valentine's Day, and Marinette is trying to scam a free meal in a restaurant by sitting at a table for two and "waiting for her date". At the same time, Adrien does the same thing, although this time, he's actually being stood up by his date. What happens when these two stumble upon each other? (One-shot!)


"Hello! I saw your advertisement outside that says couples get a meal for free today, so I'm here for that."

The blue haired female placed her palms firmly on the counter, offering the restaurant employee a wide grin. Today was Valentine's Day, which as most people know, is a day to celebrate love, specifically your love for a significant other…

"Yes, that is happening today! But, may I ask, where is your plus one?"

...however, not everyone has the ability to find a significant other very easily. Now, this can prove to be quite the dilemma when you want free food, but you also don't fit the criteria for it. Well, fortunately, Marinette Dupain-Cheng has a (not-so) fool proof plan for this.

Fake it.

Right on cue, Marinette whips her cell phone out from her purse, pretending to check her notifications. "Oh, actually, I have a date coming right now! You see, they're meeting me here." A look of realization spread across the worker's face.

"That's no problem at all!" she exclaimed, feeling rather silly for doubting such an innocent looking girl. "What can I get you for today, dear?"

She thought for a moment, eyes quickly scanning the menu. "I'll have…a—err, _two_ steak burgers, and a strawberry smoothie."

The woman behind the counter giggled. "Sharing the drink?" she winked suggestively, catching Marinette off guard for a brief moment.

"Oh, yes. Just pop two straws in there."

Marinette stood off to the side, waiting for her food to be prepared. After a few minutes, she received her meal, making sure to give the workers a polite "thank you", before settling down at a corner table for two.

She let out a silent cheer at how easily her plan worked out so far. Now, all that was left to do was to keep up the waiting act, finish her share of food, dejectedly wait around for a few minutes, maybe fake a phone call, then pack up her leftovers and leave. Easy peasy.

Marinette glanced over at the counter she ordered from, noticing an employee giving her the occasional glance. Would they find it odd that she began eating without her date arriving yet? Even though she already had the food, she still felt bad allowing them to realize she was faking it. Somehow, that felt wrong.

She took out her phone once again, turning on the screen, before swiping the screen to the right as if she were answering a call. She then held the device up to her ear.

"Hi, are you almost here?" she inquired. A few moments passed before she spoke up once again. "Oh, yeah, sure! I'll eat some without you, then…bye."

She pretended to hang up, placing the phone faced down on the table beside her. _Now_ she could eat in peace.

However, little did she know how short-lived this peace would be.

 **-o-**

To say Adrien Agreste was annoyed, would be the understatement of the year.

His father, Gabriel Agreste, was _constantly_ pressuring him to finally find a decent girl to date and attend events with him as it'd give the Agrestes a "better name". Of course, he'd always tell his father that he was still young and there was no rush—but _apparently_ his father had heard that answer one too many times and had the nerve to set up a blind date for him, behind his back.

After a _lot_ of consistent pestering from this girl (whom clearly only wanted to date him for the Agreste name, although that was a completely different matter in itself) Adrien finally agreed to a date with her, if not only to shut his father up for a while but to properly reject this girl.

However, it appears that even after they both agreed to meet at a restaurant—a place _she_ picked out, nonetheless—she was now over an hour late, not picking up any calls or responding to her texts, and didn't seem to be showing up anytime soon.

Talk about a total mood-killer.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Adrien twirled the rose in his hand a couple times, averting his attention towards the traffic outside, trying not to think too much about the fact that he was just potentially stood up.

 **-o-**

Across the room and behind the counter, the employee that took Marinette's order glanced worriedly at the girl who was now scarfing down her burger.

"Does she know that her date is already here?" the woman asked one of her co-workers. They both then shifted their attention to a blonde young man, staring out the window with a rather solemn look on his face, red rose in hand.

"Oh, my. They seem completely unaware of the other…shall we send someone to go help?" she turned around, motioning to another one of her colleagues that she needed assistance. "Excuse me, can you escort the young man at table six over to table fifteen?"

The man nodded, heading off towards Adrien's table. The woman continued taking orders, however kept a watch out for the couple, wanting to see how this played out.

 **-o-**

Marinette dabbed at her mouth with a napkin, effectively removing the scraps of food that previously littered her mouth. As bad as it sounded, she didn't regret a single decision she made today. She got some terrific food, and didn't pay a penny for it. Although, she kept in mind to leave a generous tip before she left.

She tapped her phone screen, deciding to tell Alya about the situation. Maybe she could even just ask her to come down and pretend to be her date. Alya would definitely do it, even if the reason was solely for some food.

"Excuse me, ma'am, your date has arrived."

Marinette paid no mind to the words coming out of the waiter's mouth. She assumed he must be talking to some other table beside her—there _would_ be no explanation as to why he would be talking to her. She didn't exactly have a date.

Just as she began typing out a message for her best friend, the obnoxious scraping of a chair against the hardwood floor caused her to jump a bit, immediately going on alert.

"Geez, some people really need to be more quie—" she immediately cut off her rant as she glanced up, meeting eyes with a complete stranger. It just so happened this was the exact stranger she was ready to complain about right to his face. "Uh, hello…?" she greeted awkwardly.

She got no response in reply. The blonde only not-so-discreetly looked down at her almost fully eaten burger, quirking up an eyebrow as she did so. Marinette suddenly felt self-conscious. That was a pretty big burger, wasn't it? She must seem like a glutton right now. This was a pretty bad first impression and— _wait, who even is this guy?!_

A chuckle from the stranger caught her attention. "You know, if you were going to stand me up, you probably should've chosen a different location," he informed her nonchalantly. Seeing as she didn't intend to respond, he added, "But, you know. I didn't expect all that much from you, anyway."

Marinette's jaw dropped. What did she do to deserve these kinds of words from a complete stranger?! Maybe he mistook her for someone else, but if this is how he would talk to anyone, she could see why someone would want to ditch him.

"Wow. Maybe if your dick were as big as your ego you could find a girl that wouldn't want to stand you up."

She regretted the words as soon as they escaped her lips. Clasping her hands over her mouth, she managed a small "oops". She eyed him carefully, hoping he wouldn't do something rash back. It wasn't right of her to say that when she didn't know the situation at all. Maybe the girl cheated on him—then he'd definitely have the right to be mad! She really had to start thinking before running her mouth.

"Bahahaha!"

Marinette's expression morphed from one of regret to shock. Now, _this_ was a reaction she was _not_ expecting. Why was he laughing? Did she say something funny?!

"I'm sorry, what…?" she asked, watching the young man slowly calm himself down from his laughing fit. If Marinette wasn't confused before, she definitely was now.

"I apologize. I don't think you were the girl I thought you were," he responded, smiling. "She's not nearly as witty."

Marinette crinkled her nose at that. "Witty? I think it was kind of mean, I should be the one apologizing—" she stopped talking as he thrust his hand towards her. A handshake? In this kind of situation? She was still confused, although decided to abide to this strangers wishes, giving him a firm handshake.

"I'm Adrien. Sorry for crashing your date, I'm sure yours will be arriving soon," he apologized, picking back up his belongings as he readied himself to leave.

"Ah—um, yeah, about that…" she leaned over the table, effectively stopping him in his tracks. "So, I might've lied about having a date…and, see, if you don't have anyone here anyway, would you like to eat with me?"

He quirked an eyebrow up at her antics, before offering her burger another glance and chuckling. Marinette defensively guarded her food from his view.

"Well," he spoke, "seeing as you're nearly finished, I wouldn't find much purpose in staying here to eat…" he watched her hopeful expression slowly fade.

"Oh, no, I totally get that. I—"

"But, considering the fact that you just made my day, and I might've ruined yours, I'd like to repay you by taking you out for coffee sometime?" he requested. Marinette blinked a few times in shock, before a grin slowly crept up onto her face.

"Hmm," she pretended to think. He smirked at this. "Make that hot chocolate instead, and you've got yourself a date."

He pulled out a card, messily scribbling down his name and number on the back with a ballpoint pen. "So, you're a hot chocolate gal, huh? Makes sense, since you did make my day a little sweeter."

Marinette hid her face in her hands. Somehow, she walked into this restaurant with a fake date, and would now be walking out with a really hot, smooth-talking, real one.

 **-o-**

 **tell me why im literally marinette at the beginning of this fic :^) fries over guys y'all (unless it's a hot guy oOf)**

 **it's ya girl mikan, back with the slow updates! i'll be posting a few oneshots this holiday season (it's winter break so wheeww) so keep your eyes peeled for those!**

 **i have a book that i need an essay written on by the end of break bbbuuttt i haven't even started reading it yet. oops**


End file.
